It’s time to ban the burqa and wrap up our cowardly, poisonous love-in with misogyny Camilla Long The Archbishop of Canterbury presented Imam Hafiz Ashrafi with an “interfaith” award, with his wife, who wore a niqab, and daughter, who was also heavily masked Next image › How do you feel when you see a woman in a burqa? Perhaps you have not seen one in a while. Perhaps you live in Inverness, or the remotest tip of Wales. But in this part of north London, I see them all the time. I may see maybe three or four niqabs on the way to the Tube. On the bus, always. And whenever I see them, I never, ever get over the way that I feel. I feel livid — ragingly angry — like I have to do something about it. But what? To wear a full-length shroud is to be clinically closed off from the world. It is to be placed in a cloth prison. No matter how much you tell me it is religious expression, how the women want it, how it is their choice — to me, it is enforced disability. These women can’t easily r...
